


The Air of Númenor

by Nineveh_uk



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Minas Tirith, The One Ring - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 07:50:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16363829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nineveh_uk/pseuds/Nineveh_uk
Summary: A missing scene in Minas Tirith. After Faramir tells Gandalf and Denethor of Frodo's path, Gandalf and Faramir discuss Boromir's fall and Faramir's choice.





	The Air of Númenor

When Gandalf had bidden Pippin good night he went not to his own bed, nor yet to the city walls, but to a chamber high in the citadel that he had known in the days when the one who dwelt within was but a boy. There he found Faramir, weary yet not abed, sitting in a high window that looked toward the south.

'I know why you have come, Mithrandir,' he said. 'You would learn from me somewhat that you would not ask openly before my father. Is it not so?'

'It is, if you are not too weary.'

'Then you must sit here with me, for though I am weary enough it would ease my heart to speak of it.' Faramir turned for a window and sat for a long while in silence, looking now and then towards Gandalf. At length he spoke.

'Do you see this ring?' And Faramir held out to him a jewelled ring, a sapphire set in a casing of mithril silver.

'It is not such a Ring as that of which we have spoken, but it was my brother's, and an heirloom of my House. My father gave it to him when he was but a lad of twelve, and he said it was held by some to have come even from _Númenor_ itself, though to my mind the Lord Denethor was not one such. Still, it is a beautiful thing, and of great value, and being but a boy I coveted it. It seemed to me that Boromir's possession of such a thing, a treasure of the West, was proof itself of his desert and though I coveted the thing, I would not have deprived my brother of it. When he made his errand to Imladris he left it with me, to keep for him, should he return, and for myself should he not.

'Do not blame my brother, Mithrandir, that he undertook that quest, and that in the end he failed. Nor yet my father, who gave it to him. For I am the one who failed that test and would not press my right before the Lord of the City and the elders of the Council when my brother put forth his claim.'

'Nor should you blame yourself, Lord Faramir,' said Gandalf. 'You could not know the perils that awaited your brother any more than he. Nor will I blame Boromir. He repented of his error and he died well, as you perceived, falling in battle defending the Halflings, Peregrin Took, who is now in the Lord Denethor's service, and Meriadoc Brandybuck, his kinsman. I might wish, perhaps, that it had been you to whom the errand had been given, but I cannot know whether it would indeed have been better so.'

'It was not Frodo who told me of Boromir's fall,' said Faramir. 'His servant let it slip, as I had led him to do. I let them go, trusting to your wisdom and to their own, though less willingly to their guide, and because I dared not bring this thing to Minas Tirith.' He turned for a moment to the south, looking out to the starless mirk beyond the city, where Mordor lay. 'My brother was the best of men. Should the King to come again I would surrender my Office to him, and counsel my father to do the same. But I should have been sore put to set Aragorn son of Arathorn over Boromir son of Denethor, duty though I knew it to be. Had my brother succeeded in his treachery and brought this thing to Minas Tirith, seeking to wield it against the enemy, I might have argued the wisdom of such a path, but I fear that in the end I should have followed him.'  

Gandalf's eyes grew dark. 'So indeed is the power of the One Ring. I greatly fear the path that Frodo takes, yet less than I should fear were the Ring closer to Gondor. There is little we can do to aid Frodo from afar, yet nor can we imperil him, unless at the last we should be taken as captives before he has fulfilled his quest, and in torment at the hands of the Enemy's servants reveal his quest.

'Do not undervalue your victory, Faramir, in your refusal of this thing. Few men, with such a thing to hand and such temptation, could have resisted.'

'Few men could have had such motive as, I to resist the thing that slew my brother. I do not esteem my own worth lightly, nor yet my father's: few such remain in Middle Earth as the House of the Stewards. But we are but men and the Ring Isildur's Bane. Had my grandsire been felled by a poisoned draught, I should not put my lips to the cup as my inheritance.'

Gandalf smiled. 'That you have not done. Yet your inheritance is a bitter pill, I deem.'

'So it is. My father is angered by my choice, and I cannot deny his right. For I have saved Minas Tirith only to doom her, and the honour of the Stewards only to see the Lord Denethor set down by the King when he should come. For the Ring brings only bitterness, even when refused.'


End file.
